Last week, Google rolled out a beta of its highly-anticipated new social networking platform, Google+. Reaction to the launch so far has been mainly positive, with praise for the app’s design and features.

I was delighted to get an invite to Google+. Then amazed when I was told I can’t use Google+ because we use Google Apps. It seems that Google is expecting to make Google+ available to Google Apps users “ in a few months with some.edu users possibly trialling it sooner.

Last week I was exploring how we can use positive questions to support professional development. I wrote a post here on how to prime the pump and another one on how to use positive questions to decide what you want to learn about.

Hangouts, the group video chat component of Google Plus that everyone’s been raving about , could eventually be usable with other video chat clients and services as well. Google Real-time Communications Tech Lead Justin Uberti wrote this weekend on his blog that the company plans to publish the specifications necessary to interoperate with Hangouts. MORE >>

Google’s pivot from search to social technologies occurred last week and my early impressions of their new service Google+ are very positive, particularly around their efforts on allowing you to group your contacts. The giant global advertising company have many years experience analyzing your search and email history, and often display eerily accurate recommendations contextual MORE >>

Last night I flew into Sanya, at the southernmost tip of China, to give the keynote at the NICE Interactions 2011 conference tomorrow. When I walked up to give my passport to the immigration official, on the counter in front of me was a box with 4 large buttons. There were green 2 smiley faces saying you were happy or very happy with your interaction, and two sad faces saying you were unhappy with the service or that it was taking too long. MORE >>

I've been writing a lot lately about positive professional developmen t, trying to think differently about how we approach our own learning and growth. But it occurs to me that for many of us, thinking about career and professional growth can be tough if we're feeling stuck in our current careers. All this "positive" stuff can start to sound like the manic ramblings of a crazy person. Who has TIME for positive professional development when you're just trying to keep your head above water? . MORE >>

Managers of remote teams have plenty to worry about. On top of the deadlines, interpersonal conflicts and competing priorities that face all team leaders, managers of dispersed teams need to concern themselves with keeping everyone connected and collaborating despite physical distance. Now, Wharton management professor Nancy Rothbard is adding another item to their list of potential stresses: mirror neurons. MORE >>